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“Buffy.” Just say that one word out loud at a comic book convention and you’ll find that everyone has an opinion about the cult favorite-and critically lauded-television show that lasted seven years. In addition to “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” creator Joss Whedon’s opus resulted in a popular spin-off “Angel,” and their combined popularity led to the Whedon launching “Firefly,” a short lived sci-fi/western on Fox. While the latter series have been popular in their own right, it’s “Buffy” that has become like a religion for so many fans invested in the tale of a lone woman tasked with saving the world from supernatural forces. Featuring some of the most dynamic and layered females characters on television, in addition to anti-heroes such as Angel & Spike, “Buffy” has continued to expand its reach with the consistently high-selling DVD sets. Fans have always longed for more tales of Buffy Summers and her “Scooby Gang,” with rumors of made-for-television sequels surfacing every few months and now they have reason to celebrate.

Well Buffy fans, rejoice, for Joss Whedon recently spoke to “Entertainment Weekly” about “Buffy” Season 8-the comic book! “We’re picking up almost right after season seven left off,” he told the magazine. “I don’t know exactly why it or how it happened. I just thought, ‘Oh, I could do that! It would be fun!’ It happens to me every now and then, and causes me to commit to things I really don’t have time for.”

Still, fans would love to see their favorite “Buffy”-and “Angel”-characters on their television screens again, but Whedon told “EW” why it’s not likely. “I had been thinking about doing some TV movies based on ‘Buffy’ characters, but we could never get anything resembling financing together that was realistic, so it fell by the wayside. But that whole failed endeavor made me start thinking about what would happen next, and what the stories and mythology would be. I realized there was a lot to say, and it could make for a really fun comic book.”

Whedon also told the magazine that we’ll see very minimal involvement from the “Angel” cast, as that series has their own comics published by IDW Publishing, but there will be a focus on the large amount of slayers now in the world. The scribe will also be using some ideas he originally included in the pitch for the spin-off “Slayer School,” as well as introducing some interesting new conflicts into the lives of Buffy & Co. Don’t expect to see a resolution to the “Angel” series, as Whedon hinted at other plans for the titular vampire-with-a-soul.

Comic book fans know that this isn’t the first canonical adaptation of the Buffy-verse, with the “Fray” mini-series, from Dark Horse Comics, that introduced a very important weapon into the universe, used in Season 7 of the “Buffy” series. Whedon’s also no stranger to comic books, with the uber-popular Marvel Comics series “Astonishing X-Men” under his belt, and his upcoming tenure on the fan-favorite “Runaways.”

You can check out “EW’s” website for more details and images from this new “Buffy” series.